On Monday, March 25, at the Women in IR (WIR) InspIRed Lecture and luncheon, Janice Newsome, MD, FSIR, will be presented with the 2024 WIR Champion Award. SIR Today recently spoke with Dr. Newsome about the award, her role in GEMS and more.
Women in IR InspIRed Lecture and Luncheon with Dr. Shikha Jain, Featured Speaker and Dr. Janice Newsome, WIR Champion Awardee (Ticket and registration required) Monday, March 25, 12—1 p.m. MT
How does it feel to be the 2024 Women in IR Champion Award recipient?
Janice Newsome, MD, FSIR: It’s weird and amazing to be given an award for something that you absolutely love to do. Let’s say someone says, “Here’s an award for being a mother, or breathing this morning, or those great glasses that you’re wearing.” You may think, “Really?” I believe that is the essence of why I feel so humbled—to be recognized for what you are or what you’re doing. I’m honored to be included in the same group as some of the most amazing people who have already won this award. And yet, I know there are even more amazing women within our IR community who are also extremely deserving of this award. I’ve thought about this a little because I did the Kinked Wire podcast recently with some of these other incredible women, and I felt even more humbled after that. I believe that medicine, and IR in particular, is stronger when there is diversity—especially women.
What kind of initiatives for the WIR section are you proudest of?
JN: My initiatives have been mostly around mentorship and education. These aren’t always visible—I’m often behind the scenes. I’ve also been able to participate in the annual meetings, give webinars on leadership and mentorship, and present on women’s health, specifically on postpartum hemorrhage and maternal mortality.
Why is the Women in IR mission important to you?
JN: The community of women in IR is important to me because I still think there are spaces that are needed within medicine and medical organizations where women and the issues surrounding women need to be brought to the forefront—not by individual people, but by the collective. However, until there is a societal reorganization or cultural change, I still believe that there will always be the need for us to bring to light the issues of women that are underrepresented within our specialty and directly challenge the status quo so that we can move closer to the day where that is not needed.
Women, and especially the junior women in IR, have less access to resources. Their professional networks are smaller compared to those of men. Part of what the WIR section does is provide that professional networking to help mentor other women coming into our field, and then ultimately sponsor them. It’s not just about how many of us there are, but what we’re doing with the community we have. How do we make sure there is tailored support for the growing number of female medical students so they don’t fall off as they begin their journey as IRs?
There may be women in IR, but how many women in IR are professors? How many are a part of leadership? Are they at the table where decisions are happening? I believe that in terms of education, anyone could teach, but there’s just something so special about women in IR and medicine in the space of education. There’s a freeness in which opinions are given. There’s not much, “I’m just going to keep it to myself.” The first part of teaching is this freeness of being able to say, let me show you how.
When you know something, you commit to teaching that to someone, and that is my ethos. I have a deep love for learning, and the way I solidify my learning is by teaching. When I learn something thoroughly, I can’t wait to teach it to someone.
You’ve been very involved in the SIR Foundation Grants for Education of Medical Students (GEMS) program. Can you share your experience and why you’ve been motivated to participate?
JN: This topic is so near and dear to me. I love the fact that the SIR decided to do something that would have traditionally been considered a pipeline program to address underrepresented individuals within our specialty.
The generosity of Alan H. Matsumoto, MD, FSIR, and his family created access for first generation doctors or those from less fortunate backgrounds. This program sought to provide more streamlined programming and mentoring to allow future IRs to come to the annual meeting and have exposure to such an amazing field. The leadership of GEMS is backed by Dr. Matsumoto’s ideas, his thoughts, his heart and his family, but no one man could do this mission. To be able to put together a team and see Vishal Kumar, MD, FSIR, really take the helm and change it, despite a global pandemic threatening to derail this program, was one of the best things that ever happened to GEMS. Now, more people can benefit. Instead of someone having to show up for their one-on-one mentorship, now they have 30 mentors from all over the U.S., because we’ve now become a huge community.
I laugh when I have to give a GEMS lecture because I always bring up a diamond or a real gem. It’s such a fitting name of the program to be called GEMS because I also equate that to just the natural gems that we think about the world of jewelry.
To be included in any process where you are exposed to these amazing, young people, who I also consider gems, is remarkable. You can’t create them; they exist in finite forms. We know that they are created under amazing circumstances, and sometimes not the greatest ones. The process is messy, and yet what comes out of it is so incredible and amazing. I feel like I’m the person that is wearing the gem. I am the one that is being enriched by these students so much more than I could ever give.
Where would you like to see the specialty in 10 years?
JN: What I hope now is, sadly, some of the same things I had hoped for 10 years ago. I do acknowledge that we’ve made some progress, and I’m not without optimism. But in 10 years I hope we will have more representation of women within our specialty. My hope is that we see our mission more globally and not just locally.
I hope that in 10 years, IR will be considered “better medicine,” and that this better medicine will be actualized in more places where diseases exist in volumes that would blow our minds.
As a specialty, we see the suffering of human beings everywhere, and we figure out how to help—not just around the corner, but all over the world. I hope we discover ways to ensure everyone could benefit from image-guided medicine, regardless of how much money they have, what their religion is, their skin color or gender.
I would also like to see IR be more integrated in the World Health Organization’s goals and the United Nation’s sustainable goals. I hope when people talk about how populations could live longer and improve their health, without batting an eye, IR or image-guided therapies will come top of mind for these governments. For women in particular, I hope they get to play a prominent role, especially in the diseases that predominantly affect women.
